This Week’s Insights: Why social media doesn’t drive ticket sales… Audiobooks are robbing our leisure time… HD streaming is helping define the world’s great performing arts companies… Even fitness companies are becoming entertainers these days… Theatre at $2000 a ticket (would you pay?)
- Does Social Media Drive Ticket Sales? Nope (That’s The Short Answer): Everyone’s doing social media, right? Spending money on doing social media? But it doesn’t translate into selling tickets.
“There is no clear correlation between a company’s social media campaigns and how many seats they fill in the theater. That doesn’t mean social media isn’t, of course, vital. It simply means that “social media campaigns operating without other marketing campaigns don’t cut it,” says Rob Bailis, associate director of Cal Performances at UC Berkeley. “But campaigns without social media are far worse off.” So what actually does work? Using video to establish a profile, an aesthetic that builds interest over time. - In The Achiever Culture, Audiobooks Are Hot. But At A Cost:
Audiobooks are the fastest-growing segment of the books industry, a real success for an industry that has struggled to reinvent. Learn while you’re doing something else. That’s what successful people do, right? Maximize their efficiency? But listening isn’t reading, and attention spans being what they are, it doesn’t help. And our unfocused time is getting rarer and rarer. What impact does this have on our ability to be in the moment to enjoy art? There’s concern this always-on mentality makes it more difficult to focus. - The Met On HD, 2.0: It was a big experiment when the Metropolitan Opera started streaming in HD to movie theatres all over the world.
“Since the Metropolitan Opera began broadcasting live to movie theaters, in 2006, companies from the Bolshoi to the Komische Oper Berlin have seen digital distribution as crucial to positioning themselves internationally. Only a handful of players have the standing and resources to create for cinema, and many organizations in Europe turn to free web streaming, but never before have opera houses had such freedom to produce their own content.” And they are... - Every Company Is An Entertainment Company These Days: Marriott has its own newsroom. Red Bull makes movies, runs events and, at least until recently, a music academy. Fitness companies understand that appeal to fitness isn’t enough, they have to entertain. And so companies such as Peloton have made working out a multimedia experience. And that’s got them in trouble with media producers. They’ve sued over Peloton’s use of their music for workouts.
- Would You Pay $2000 A Ticket For The Theatre? It’s happening in New York for “The Lehman Trilogy.” The show was virtually sold out long before it opened, with tickets for the best seats costing more than $400. Tickets for some of the final performances have now reached $2,000 on StubHub “We are lingering in a moment in which there is a fashion, or even a giddiness, for spending large sums of money on theatrical experiences that explore the foundations and promises of American capitalism.”
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